CHARLOTTE — Mitchell Evans has a little experience playing quarterback. He did so at the high school level because he was the best athlete on the team, then made the pilgrimage so many small-town passers do by becoming a tight end at the college level.

But every now and then, the Panthers let Evans step back into the role, using his 6-5, 265-pound frame to line up under center and push the ball right over the line.

He's done it twice now, and he's 2-for-2.

"Hats off to Mitch, 2-for-2," bragged offensive coordinator Brad Idzik on Thursday. "Sometimes, it's really close there, but he got what we needed."

The first was against Seattle last season, a sneak on fourth-and-1 that gave the Panthers a fresh set of downs.

Carolina used it again on Sunday against the Eagles, and it worked again, thanks in no small part to Bryce Young's superb acting.

The QB lined up in pistol with Chuba Hubbard behind him, which confounded the announcers on CBS, considering the Panthers faced third-and-1 from their own 39-yard line. Young turned to Hubbard, appearing to change the play or offer a final bit of direction, and pulling the defense's attention.

"They tried that out in practice. I had to double-check them; we turn around and talk to them during the mix sneak. They tried it out in practice," Idzik explained of the drama practice that happened with Young, Hubbard, Evans, and the offensive line.

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"I had to check them to make sure that, 'Do we need to face forward in the line of scrimmage?' We're kind of crossing our T's and dotting our I's. They're doing a great job of playing the game within a game."

This isn't the first time Young has executed a well-done acting job. Last year, in a win against Green Bay, in a passing situation, he acted like he was pointing out a protection he wanted running back Rico Dowdle to pick up. It sold the pass to the Packers' defense, and Dowdle broke off a 19-yard run with relative ease, putting Carolina in game-winning field-goal range.

"That's just guys that are comfortable within what we're asking them," said Idzik, after referencing the Green Bay play.

"When you get guys that are, 'Hey, I understand the play call, I understand the intent,' now they can kind of loosen up, and you're not loose, but you're also, you're not stressed out about the play, you know exactly what we're doing."

His acting worked again versus a stout Philly defensive front, giving Evans enough time and space to sneak under center and push forward behind the offensive line for the necessary 1-yard gain.

"I know that (Eagles) play in particular, (Bryce) doesn't have a huge role and we're just trying to peel off to the side and make sure Mitch gets us the first down. But those guys understand, OK, the intent of the play is to try to draw some eyes elsewhere and then hit him on the sneak," said Idzik.

"They did a great job of putting their own flavor on it; we'll make sure it's legal as coaches, and then we'll continue to do that stuff to keep the defense off-kilter."

Not every short third or fourth down requires a QB sneak from Mitchell Evans. While the Panthers don't employ sneaks with Young, the offense has still been incredibly efficient at converting short-yardage situations. Against the Eagles, Carolina converted four third-and-fourth-and-short plays; five if you also count the time Young drew the Eagles into an encroachment penalty.

"The attitude that we're talking about with Robert Hunt, Tommy Tremble coming off the ball and leading through the gap, and then Chuba's attitude runs like, we're able to lean on that," said Idzik. "Those guys take a ton of pride and, 'Hey, we need a yard,' we know where we need to go; we're pushing guys off the ball. We'll try to shake free the defense just a little bit to give you a little sliver of light for Chuba, and that's all that it takes."

LBs Lloyd and Okereke are "football junkies"

Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero has worked with a lot of different linebackers in his time here, not of his own choosing. From injuries that took Shaq Thompson and Josey Jewell away, to a cycle of a lot of other guys over the last several years, he hasn't enjoyed the kind of stability he has now.

Or talent.

And having Devin Lloyd and Bobby Okereke has paid immediate dividends.

From Lloyd taking over the opener against the Falcons to Okereke with a sack and a dropped interception on the first two plays last week, these two have made an immediate impression.

So far this season, they've combined for 69 tackles (Lloyd 35, Okereke 34), three interceptions (Lloyd two, Okereke one), 3.0 sacks (Lloyd 2.0, Okereke 1.0), eight tackles for loss (four each), six quarterback hits (Lloyd four, Okereke two), and seven passes defensed (Okereke four, Lloyd three).

So yeah, that's different.

"Well, we're certainly happy with the performance of Devin and Bobby," Evero said, in the understatement of the day. "Smart guys, tough guys, playmakers. And, obviously, game day is the most important day, but when you talk about doing football on a day-to-day basis, these guys are just... you can do football at a high level with them; you can talk football with them; they're always into it.

"You want to talk about family, and Bobby and Devin are talking about scheme, and so they're just football junkies, and so it's been a lot of fun, doing it with them."

Losing Thomas Incoom creates ripple effect

Panthers head coach Dave Canales mentioned Wednesday that outside linebacker and special teamer Thomas Incoom was "week-to-week" with a calf strain, and that he's not the kind of player it's easy to swap out.

"Shoot, it took four guys to replace him on special teams on Sunday," Canales said.

Part of that is because of the in-game dynamics of only having 48 players active, but special teams coach Tracy Smith is used to changing tires on moving cars, because that's just the life in his subsection of the industry. One injury can often require multiple changes, and that's what happened last week.

Smith said a few switched spots because they knew multiple positions, but four unique human beings replaced him. That moving around got even more complicated when starting outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips got hurt, further testing the depth.

"First, really sorry to see Thomas get hurt, really unbelievable competitor, easy to see him as the engine of our special teams — always driving forward, helps the guys get going," Smith said. "What Dave was referring to was within the game, so he gets hurt during the game at the beginning there, so he ends up getting replaced by four guys throughout the four different phases, because he was doing slightly different jobs on all of those. Some of the guys switched positions. David Moore came in on the kickoff team. Trevis Gipson came in on kickoff return. Bobby Okereke came in on punt, and then on punt return, Tyrel Dodson entered the field.

"If you're preparing for a new game, it wouldn't necessarily go the same way, but just how a game goes, who's available for that day, makes each one of those kind of like a circumstantial change, because who can best replace what he's doing on those?

"He's such a dynamic player that four different guys happen to go to that game. You're also dealing with players who have roles in the game already. So you can't say, OK, Thomas is out, Trevis, you have all of his stuff, because Trevis is also replacing all of those defensive plays that Jaelen went out for as well. So, it's kind of the puzzle of how a game works."